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Berlin: Photoshoot Locations

To round out my posts from a recent Berlin trip, here’s a bit of the “behind the scenes” story for the locations chosen for the 10 photoshoots in early August.

My pre-planning for this trip included communication with 3 model agencies who agreed to shoots with their models. Arrangement of 10 shoots in 5 days then led to a whirlwind of location research in the pre-planning phases.

While I have begun day tripping to cities nearby for photoshoots, this type of experience, photo-shooting while traveling, was only the second of it’s kind for me (the first being in Salzburg earlier this year). What an amazing, instructive opportunity it was – and a bit of a wild ride!

With the help of Google images and Youtube (for location searching), Pinterest (for organizing location ideas) and knowledge gained through previous trips to the capital of Germany, I rounded up a nice and varied spread of locations, often evocative of some “classic” element of Berlin atmosphere or representing local landmark space. Some locations were also found right on the spot, during the shoot, in that collaborative model-photographer style that I value greatly.

As a photographer I am self taught and thrill in the discipline and discovery of the self learning process. However, it becomes more obvious that my graduate academic background in Urban Planning and Historic Preservation often has direct impact on locations I choose and particularly, how I love to ‘showcase’ a sense of city space in many of my shoots, alongside the main subject.

I had previously stayed at the Pestana Tiergarten Berlin in the Embassy District and appreciated many things about the hotel, to include their photogenic lobby space. After some communication with the hotel (which also served as my comfortable retreat after the busy days photo-shooting), I gained permission to use the lobby space in a couple of the photoshoots, seen in the links below:

The Spree was a popular go-to location in several of the shoots, to include the following:

The Siegessäule (Victory Column) was used as a landmark location in the background for two shoots:

Moving from one location to the next, we made spontaneous use of an underground passage in the “On the Brink of Night with Alex” shoot (linked above).

Pillars of the Altes Museum, on Museum Island, also used in above linked shoots.

Hansaviertel is a neighborhood I had not previously visited, yet during location research was determined to use in one of the shoots. The calm, residential environment and pop of bright colors everywhere on apartment buildings made for a great atmosphere and backdrop for the following shoot:

Museum Island, with the Fernsehturm (TV Tower) in the distance, as used in “Museum Island with Daniel N.” linked above.

Berliner Philharmoniker as used in the following shoot:

Tegel Airport as used in shoot:

Tegel Airport as used in above linked shoot “Tegel with Daniel K.”

Other Locations used but not pictured:

Moabit neighborhood

Kreuzberg neighborhood

Gorlitzer Park

Tiergarten

Embassy District

Also, a new feature over at my business site- Testimonials! I love focusing every shoot towards the end goal of the product, just as much as I love the experience gained during the shoot and the interaction with whoever is in front of my lens and the purely social and relaxed moments in between photo-shooting. Enjoy the testimonials here…